Blogging... Where Have You Gone?

Well, as you can see the the amount of activity here at derryprenkert.com has all but halted. There have been multiple attempts to re-enter blogdom with consistent and meaningful posting only to fall nothing short of dead. I'll be honest, I miss it. During the 2007-2010 span I LOVED blogging. It was at times a creative outlet, at times a ministry outlet, at times spiritual journal, and every time enjoyable.

I remember often picking on those who started up a blog only to post 5-10 times then never post again or laughing at people who put their blog on their email signature even though he/she hadn't written anything on it for months.

Whoops.

What happened?
Well, I have been thinking about that a lot lately. I can't blame one thing; but here's several things that happened.

Life Happened... Or should I say, 2 lives happened. Their names are Moses and Keiralee. Moses entered our family in July 2011 and Keiralee in July 2012. Notice any corelation to the amount of posting? Actually 143 of those 2011 posts happened pre-July 2011; 25 post. I LOVE MY FAMILY. I LOVE MY KIDS. The reality is that with every kid I found one more way to be a little less selfish with my time. Add in major role changes in my ministry role and a several other significant events (including but not limited to selling and buying a house) and the time margins have definitely changed.

Facebook Updates and Twitter Happened... Life was narrowed down to 140 or less characters. Everyone got on Facebook and Twitter and in the process, less and less people were paying attention to blogs. I was a participant in this move and this blog was a victim in this move. No need to post a picture and a story here. I can just do it on Facebook? Why get online and write a post when I can just shoot a quick Tweet from my phone?

Privacy Happened... More kids. They are getting older. Their
stories are exactly that... their stories. So much of my stories
involve them now that I'm hesitent to put those out for the entire world
to see.

Everyone Feeling Like We Had to Post Our Opinion on Everything Happened... As Facebook and Twitter increased in traffic, the amount of opinions, and posts that just made me cringe or shake my head took place. Barack Obama, Chick Fil a, and Phil Robertson... yup. I still can't decide which of these really happened with me...

As I grow weary of everyone spouting off their immediate opinions,e I don't want to take part in the hyperbolic cyber overload of everyone's thoughts on everything?

Am I realizing that my blog posting was much the same as this, and I grew up a little?(I think it's a little of both)

Falling Out of Practice Happened... As I would often tell my fellow "start a blog and do nothing with it" bloggers, blogging is a discipline. You don't keep it as a regular part of your life, you'll fall out of practice.

Writer's Block Happened... It was part #4 and part #5, and part the thought "What more could I write about." I would sit down and click the "Create New Post" tab, then stare at the screen for quite a while with nothing coming to mind. I'm still there. Every time I think about or try kicking this thing back up again, I go nuthin'.

Narcicism Happened... Somewhere along the line I got really caught up in getting traffic to my blog. Analytics, page loads, comments, etc. became the driving force rather than the joy of writing. I mean, there's not much point in having a blog unless you want people to read what you're writing, right? But I think the problem was in that I was convinced what I had to say was really important. Maybe God allowed the blog to dry up a little because I was getting to the point where there was some bad fuel driving it all.

So, there you go. Why this blog has all but died.
Truth is I'm really hesitant to say I'm going to start up again. Yet, outside those who have subscribed to receive these posts as email (and you probably forgot you did it), it's not like there will be many people reading this.

So, my goal... one post every day through January.
What will I write about?
No idea at all. Seriously I can't think of a single idea for a blog post right now. But I'm just going to see if I can get back in the habit of posting and pretty much do it for my enjoyment right now. We'll see where it goes from there.

Happy reading to all 5 of you, and to those with email subscriptions, I'm sure there's a a way to unsubscribe!!